Divinity School

"The poet wants to know what happened next. After the flood subsides, when the world grew back, in the place of dials and switches, inside the constraints of earthly time where faces crack, flesh sags and fish stink. She understands that conflict is easier than kindness."—from the introduction by C.D. Wright

Divinity School, winner of the prestigious Honickman First Book Award from the American Poetry Review, is a wide-ranging exploration of spirituality, sex, travel, food, holy texts, and coming of age. Poet Alicia Jo Rabins brings a searing eye for surreal beauty in everyday life with a deep knowledge of wisdom literature, and creates a modern manual for living, a fearless investigation of how we learn to live in a human body both prism and flesh.

Sometimes you see the leaves as birds who have traveled all night and come to rest at dawn. Sometimes you feel the space between molecules of honey. Sometimes you are at the airport. Sometimes you are at the hospital. You find your seat an hour before sunrise and watch polar bears swim slowly underwater through the glass. Oh immigration, oh fluorescent lights, the surgeon's rubber gloves, brush-tips of death against your cheek. This country stamps your passport and hands it back forever changed.

Alicia Jo Rabins is a poet, composer, musician, and Torah scholar. She teaches ancient Jewish texts to children and adults and performs internationally as a violinist and singer. She lives in Portland, Oregon.